“Even our remaining original serjeants are going to the detention barracks,” Acacia told Ralph as they shoved their way through the perimeter. “It makes things easier. We can sort them out from the ex-possessors later on.”
“Tell them, thanks. I appreciate it. We need to keep things flowing here.”
The marine captain squelched over to Ralph’s little group and saluted. Rainwater dripped steadily off his skull helmet.
“How’s it going, Captain?” Ralph asked.
“Good, sir. We’ve got a valid supervision routine up and running here now.”
“Well done. You get back, do your job. We’ll try not to get in the way.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Ralph spent a couple of minutes watching quietly as the people and serjeants came flooding out of the green light. Despite the humidity and warm rain, he felt cold trickling through his chest.
Strange, I can accept a wormhole or ZTT jump across light-years as perfectly normal, but a portal leading out of this universe is like a phobia. Is this too divine for me, physical proof of a realm where celestials exist? Or the opposite, proof that even the human soul and omnipotent creatures have a rational basis? I’m looking at the end of religions, the fact that we were never visited by any messenger from any creator god. A fact presented in a fashion I can never ignore. The loss of our race’s spiritual innocence.
He could see that the ex-possessed humans that came through were surprised, a dim-witted confusion present on every face as the dreary rain started to soak their clothes. The serjeants lumbered out, their bewilderment less obtrusive, but none of them seemed in full control of their moments during the initial few moments.
Several members of the science investigatory team were wandering round the gateway, waving sensor blocks at it. Most of the army’s scientific staff were down on the peninsula, trying to make sense of the energistic ability. Diana Tiernan was one of the few people content with the sieges, explaining how it gave the physicists a chance to study the power outside the laboratory. Ralph had left her back in the headquarters building, desperately trying to arrange for instruments and personnel to be flown back to Fort Forward.
“That’s Sinon,” Acacia exclaimed. “He’s an original.”
Ralph saw a serjeant who lacked the unsteadiness of the others. The assessment team of marines and medics pointed him at the passage of armoured marine troopers. “You sure?” Ralph queried.
“Yes.”
Ralph hurried up to the assessment team. “Okay, we’ll take this one.”
The marine captain’s exasperation was throttled back at the interference. “Yes sir.”
A thoroughly chastised Ralph led Sinon away. They wound up standing between the gateway and the perimeter ring of marines. His own staff gathered round. “This crystal entity you encountered back there, did it tell you how we could solve the overall problem?” Ralph asked.
“I’m sorry, General. It took the same attitude as the Kiint. We must generate our own solution.”
“Damnit! But it was willing to help de-possess bodies.”
“Yes. It said it judged us by our own ethics, and that such a theft was wrong.”
“Okay, what kind of conditions were you facing in that realm? Did you see any of the other planets?”
“The conditions were what we made of them; the reality dysfunction ability was paramount. Unfortunately, even wishes have limits. We were cast out alone on that island, without any fresh air or food. Nothing could change that. The entity implied that our planets would be considerably more fortunate, not that we saw any. That realm is too vast for any chance encounter. The entity even hinted it may be more extensive than our own universe, though not necessarily in its physical dimensions. It is an explorer, it went there because it believed it would expand its own knowledge.”
“So it’s not paradise?”
“Definitely not. The possessed are wrong about that. It’s a refuge, that’s all. There’s nothing there which you don’t bring to it yourself.”
“So it is entirely natural?”
“I believe so, yes.”
After the burst of confusion at the start of the exodus, the marines exerted complete control over everyone who came through the gateways. They were on top of the situation, and stayed there right up until the last four serjeants came through. The marines immediately ushered them towards the trucks waiting in the parking lot as they’d done with all the others.
“No way,” Moyo said. “We’re waiting for her.”
“Who?” the marine captain asked.
“Stephanie. She must have gone back somehow.”
“Sorry, no exceptions.”
“Yo, dude,” Cochrane said. “She’s like our righteous leader; and she’s doing her last good deed. So where do you cats come off acting like colonel asswipe?”
The captain wanted to protest, but somehow the sight of a serjeant wearing slim purple sunglasses and a paisley-patterned backpack stopped the words from coming out.
“I mean, she’s like out there all alone battling the last and greatest of the hobgoblin queens, to save your soul. The least you can do is act thankful.”
“It’s closing,” McPhee shouted.
The gateway was contracting, shrinking back to a small sliver of emerald shimmering a metre above the surface of the road. The physicists shouted excitedly, datavising fresh instructions to the considerable sensor array they’d assembled round the transplanetary rift.
“Stephanie!” Moyo yelled.
“Wait,” Cochrane said. “It’s not shutting down completely. See?”
A small remnant of green light continued to burn steadily.
“She’s still there,” Moyo said desperately. “She can still make it. Please!” he appealed to the marine captain. “You have to let us wait for her.”
“I can’t.”
“Hang on in there,” Cochrane said. “I maybe know someone who can help here.” Ever since he’d arrived back on Ombey there had been a thousand alien voices whispering away to each other at the back of his mind. Sinon,he yelled at them. Hey, big dude, you around these parts? It’s me, your ol’ buddy Cochrane. We like need some high-powered help right now. Stephanie’s being cosmically stupid again.
Acacia took the problem directly to Ralph. He might have been firm about it, but the Edenist mentioned Annette Ekelund.
“Let them wait,” Ralph datavised to the marine captain. “We’ll set up a watching brief.”
An hour and twenty minutes later the gateway expanded briefly to let three humanoid figures stagger out. Stephanie and Annette, in their serjeant bodies, supported a trembling Angeline Gallagher between them. They handed her over to the small medical team, who rushed her into the hospital.
Moyo raced over and flung his arms around Stephanie, his mind leaking a torrent of distress into the general affinity band.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he cried. “After all that, I couldn’t stand it.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. A physical embrace was almost impossible, their hard skulls clacked together loudly as they attempted to kiss.
The rover reporters who’d hung on to the bitter end dodged round the marine guard to close on the strange party.
“Hi there you dudes, I’m Cochrane, one of the like superheroes who got the kids out across the firebreak. That’s Cochrane. C-O-C-H . . .”